Evian, June 17 -- US President Donald Trump on Wednesday said the United States and India were "very close" to finalising a long-awaited trade deal and hailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi as his "friend for a long time" during a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the G7 Summit in France here.

When asked about the US-India trade deal, Trump said that it is "very close". He added, "We've been there for a little while, and he's (PM Modi) a very tough negotiator. He's one of the toughest."

In his opening remarks, the US President said, "We had, in particular, some very good conversations with Prime Minister Modi, India. And we're doing trade deals, we're doing a lot of things, a lot of things are happening between the United States and I...